District signaling apparatus



(No Model.)

J. 0, WILSON.

DISTRICT SIGNALING APPARATUS.

No. 339,960. Patented Apr. 13, 1886.

IqVeqfur wson WIl'FIESEEE UNITED STATES PATENT rricno JOHN CORNELIUS WVILSON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SPECZFZCATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 839,960, dated April 13, 1886.

Application filed October 13, 1884. Serial No. 145,399. (No model.) I

To all whom it 11mg concern.-

Be it known that I, J OHN CORNELIUS WIL- SON, of Boston, Suffolk county, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in District Si gnaling Apparatus, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My invention, relating to signal apparatus such as employed for municipal or district telegraph purposes, consists in novel appliances for producing a returnsignal for notifying a subscriber at a sub-station that his message has been received at the main or central station, the said return signal not interfering with the other use of the line.

The main signaling apparatus consists, essentially, of signalboxes at the sub-stations, containing break-wheels or other automatic circuit-breaking devices, and receiving appa-- ratus or registers at the main or central station, of any usual construction.

The appliances for producing the returnsignal consists of a receiving signalinstrument at each of the boxes or sub-stations in a normally open or shunted branch of the main circuit while the direct signaling or message is being transmitted from the sub-station to the central oflice, but which is automatically thrown into the main circuit after such direct signal is completed, the said signaling-instrument being aifected by or responding to reversals in polarity at the main station, but unaffected by interruptions in a current of constant polarity, and the apparatus at the .main station by which the return-signal is transmitted consists of a pole-changing device, whereby the position of the main battery in the main circuit maybe reversed without opening the line, so that no eifect is produeed on the register or apparatus for signaling by breaks or interruptions in the current.

Figure 1 shows, mainly, in diagram a circuit and signaling apparatus embodying this invention; Fig. 2, a plan view of the breakwheel, showing its circuit-connection with the main line and with the instrument for producing the return-signal.

The apparatus is included in a main circuit connecting a main or central station, 0, Fig. 1, with any desired number of sub-stations,

A, each containing a signalbox by which telegraphic messages are automatically transmitted to the main or central oflice in any usual manner. As shown in this instance, the signal-box at each sub-station A contains a breakwheel, a, which may be operated by any suitable or usual clock-work or mechanism not herein shown or described, as apparatus of this character in various forms is well-known. The said break-wheel a, as shown in this instance, forms a portion of the main circuit which is completed by a contact-spring, b, resting on the said wheel, the circuit being broken and the current therein interrupted when each notch passes under the end of the said spring I) in the usual manner. The spring bis connected with the main line 2, leading from the station A toward the main oilice in one direction, and the break-wheel a is con nected with the portion 3 of the main line leading to the central office in the other direction, the said main line at the central station passing through signal-receiving apparatus consisting of a relay-magnet, r, controlling a register, R, by which signals transmitted from the sub stations are made known at the central office. The main line 2, from one side of main office, is connected with contact-springs 0 and (1, adapted to make contact, respectively, with two portions, e andf, of a key or lever, g, operated by hand or by a magnet, h, in a local circuit controlled by a key, z. The two portions c f of the transmitter key or lever are connected by wires 4 and 5 with the opposite poles of the main battery B, and the portion 3 of the main line is connected with contactsprings k and m, co-opcrating with the portions 6 and f of the transmitting-lever, which when in one position connects the poles of the battery 13, through the springs d and m, with the main line, causing the current to pass therethrough in one direction, and when the said lever is in its other position it connects the same poles of the battery, through the springs c and 7c,with the opposite ends of the main line, causing the current to pass therethrough in the opposite direction. These devices constitute a pole-changer of well-known construction, by which the polarity or direction of the current is reversed in the main line without opening or breaking the latter, and

apparatus It from one of the sub-stations A,.

the said return-signal being received upon or made known by a signaling-instrument, n, at the sub-station. ment at for the return-signal is shown as of the kind in which the armature o is polarized by a permanent magnet, 11, and is pivoted between the poles of an electro-magnet, 1', and consequently caused to vibrate when the polarity of the .said electro-magnet is changed, as by reversing the direction of the current passing through it. The said magnet is included in a branch, 6, from the mainline 2, connected with a spring, t, resting on the surface of the wheel a at the side of the spring b,which normally shunts the said branch and magnet r therein, while the notched portions of the periphery of the wheel a are passing beneath the springs to transmit the message to the main oflice.

The notches by which the signal or message of the box is produced occupy only a portion of its circumferencabeyond which the part co-operating with the spring b is cutaway or reduced in diameter, as shown at a, while the portion co-operating with the spring t remains of full diameter, so that the said spring b is removed from the circuit, which will then include the branch 6, magnet r, and spring t, while the portion a of the wheel is passing beneath the spring b after the signal has been wholly transmitted from the sub-station to the main oflice, and during this time the central operator having received the signal or message will operate the key 6 or pole-changer g a few times, producing a corresponding number of taps on the bell of the signal m.

It is obvious that the herein-described answering-signal is applicable to any kind of signal-box, either those in which the wheel a is rotated by a motor that is wound up from time to time and tripped or released when each signal is sent, or in which the motor is wound for, each signal, and, if desired, a multiple signal device might be employed-such as shown in Letters Patent granted to me September 4, 1883, to which reference may be had-in which case the periphery of the wheel a would be removed under both springs b and t for a certain space, to permit the multiple device to operate.

In Letters Patent No. 290,302, granted to me December 18, 1883, an induction-coil was shown normally retained wholly detached from the circuit, but which when the key or transmitter, also therein shown, was depressed, the'battery was removed from the main circuit The said receiving-instrw and connected in the short circuit with the primarycoil of the induction-coil, key or transmitter simultaneously placing the secondary coil of the said induction-coil in the main circuit, so that pulsations or interrup tions in the current of the battery passing through the primary coilproducedby induction a series of impulses in the secondary coil and main circuit, and such apparatus for return-signaling Ido not herein claim. o

By the battery-reversing instrument herein described the position of the battery in the main circuit is reversed without opening the line, sothatno efi'ect is produced upon the register or apparatus for signaling by breaks or total interruptions in thecurrent, said reg ister or apparatus for signaling being eoni structed and arranged to respond toreversals in polarity; also, by the battery-reversing instrument herein described a signal of differ ent character is produced than by the pole- I i changer described in the patent referred vto, in this instance it being a series of taps regulated as to their number by the depressions vof the Y key,while in the patent referred to a rapidlyvibrating signal is transmitted, so that if it is desired to employ return-signals of difl'erent.

character in a single system both kinds of pole-changing devices may be employed.

I claim 1. In an electric circuit, asignal-box or sub-station containing a break-whcel and a interposing the latter in the circuit aiheljthe polarized signaling-instrument and device for signal has been transmitted bythesbrealb: I

wheel, combined with a battery-revefirsingfllnstrument located at the station where thesignal of the said break-wheel is received for opvcrating the said polarized signaling-instrument at the sub-station, substantially as dey r scribed 2. The notched circuit-wheel a, andcontact springs b and t co-operating therewith, combined with the polarized signaling-instrument I connected in a branch between thesaidsprings, and the battery-reversing instrumeut at, the station where the signal produced by the said circuit-wheel is received for operatingthe said 7 polarized signaling-instrument, the said air.-

cuit-wheel having a portion of its periphery notched for itsentire widtlnand another-per l U5 co-operating with one spring, and of reduced I tion'of its periphery of full diameter where diameter where co-operating with the other spring, substantially as described. In testimony whereof I have signedmy to this specification in the presence of twosub' scribing witnesses.

JOHN CORNELIUS WILSON.

Witnesses:

J 0s. P. LIVERM Er B. J. NOYES. 

